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SC-400 just had a major update, incorporating new domain objectives that have been lifted and adapted from the just reitred MS-500 exam (June 30, 2023). The two new objectives are Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview and Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365. Because of this the previous weightings of each section had to accommodate the additions.
It’s important to note that this exam is different in a few ways to the other exams in the SC series. The first major difference is that it really is much more focused on protecting Office 365 workloads, rather than the mix of Microsoft 365 and Azure workloads that the other exams cover. The inclusion of Azure Purview means that some additional Azure knowledge is going to be required, but at this point in the exam’s life, this isn’t a heavily weighted area.
It is also different in that this falls into the compliance side of the compliance and security conversation, so it expects you to have an understanding of the Microsoft technologies that focus on content classification, data loss prevention, governance, and protection.
What these differences potentially mean for those of you who want to do this exam is that if you already have a solid understanding of the compliance related Office 365 Enterprise E5 workloads, and have worked with Azure Information Protection, you are probably at a very good starting point. Where does that leave you if that’s not where your skills currently are?
Thankfully these gaps will be pretty easy for you to fill, especially when they are workload related. Make sure that you understand the terms that are used for protection inside of Teams, Exchange, and SharePoint, for example, so that you aren’t getting caught out on feature terminology. You don’t need to be an expert in the individual products just mentioned, instead just make sure you’ve been through some introductory concepts that introduce features and terminology. My suggestion is that use Microsoft Learn modules for this, rather than trying to finding the relevant Microsoft Docs pages.
Implement Information Protection (25-30%)
Create and manage sensitive information types
- Identify sensitive information requirements for an organization’s data
- Translate sensitive information requirements into built-in or custom sensitive info types
- Create and manage custom sensitive information types
- Create and manage exact data match (EDM) classifiers
- Implement document fingerprinting
Create and manage trainable classifiers
- Identify when to use trainable classifiers
- Design and create a trainable classifier
- Test a trainable classifier
- Retrain a trainable classifier
Implement and manage sensitivity labels
- Implement roles and permissions for administering sensitivity labels
- Design and create sensitivity labels
- Configure and manage sensitivity label policies
- Configure auto-labeling policies for sensitivity labels
- Monitor data classification and label usage by using Content explorer, Activity explorer and audit search
- Apply bulk classification to on-premises data by using the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner
- Manage protection settings and marking for applied sensitivity labels
Design and implement encryption for email messages
- Design an email encryption solution based on methods available in Microsoft 365
- Implement Microsoft Purview Message Encryption
- implement Microsoft Purview Advanced Message Encryption
Implement Data Loss Prevention (15-20%)
Create and configure data loss prevention (DLP) policies
- Design DLP policies based on an organization’s requirements
- Configure permissions for DLP
- Create and manage DLP policies
- Interpret policy and rule precedence in DLP
- configure DLP policies for Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, and on-premises repositories
- Configure file policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps to use DLP policies
Implement and monitor Microsoft Endpoint DLP
- Configure advanced DLP rules for devices in DLP policies
- Configure Endpoint DLP settings
- Recommend a deployment method for device onboarding
- Identify endpoint requirements for device onboarding
- Monitor endpoint activities
- Implement the Microsoft Purview Extension
Monitor and manage DLP activities
- Analyze DLP reports
- Analyze DLP activities by using Activity explorer
- Remediate DLP alerts in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal
- Remediate DLP alerts generated by Defender for Cloud Apps
Implement Information Governance (10-15%)
Retain and delete data by using retention labels
- Plan for information retention and disposition by using retention labels
- Create retention labels for data lifecycle management
- Configure and manage adaptive scopes
- Configure a retention label policy to publish labels
- Configure a retention label policy to auto-apply labels
- Interpret the results of policy precedence, including using Policy lookup
Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads
- Create and apply retention policies for Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive
- Create and apply retention policies for Microsoft 365 groups
- Create and apply retention policies for Microsoft Teams
- Create and apply retention policies for Yammer
- Create and apply retention policies for Exchange Online
- Apply mailbox holds in Exchange Online
- Implement Exchange Online archiving policies
- Configure preservation locks for retention policies and retention label policies
- Recover retained content in Microsoft 365
Implement Microsoft Purview records management
- Create and configure retention labels for records management
- Manage retention labels by using a file plan, including file plan descriptors
- Classify records by using retention labels and retention label policies
- Manage event-based retention
- Manage the disposition of content in records management
- Configure records management settings, including retention label settings and disposition settings
Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)
Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
- Plan for regulatory compliance in Microsoft 365
- Create and manage assessments
- Create and modify custom templates
- Interpret and manage improvement actions
- Create and manage alert policies for assessments
Plan and manage eDiscovery and Content search
- Choose between eDiscovery (Standard) and eDiscovery (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements
- Plan and implement eDiscovery
- Delegate permissions to use eDiscovery and Content search
- Perform searches and respond to results from eDiscovery
- Manage eDiscovery cases
- Perform searches by using Content search
Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview
- Choose between Audit (Standard) and Audit (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements
- Plan for and configure auditing
- Investigate activities by using the unified audit log
- Review and interpret compliance reports and dashboards
- Configure alert policies
- Configure audit retention policies
Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
- Plan for communication compliance
- Create and manage communication compliance policies
- Investigate and remediate communication compliance alerts and reports
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
- Plan for insider risk management
- Create and manage insider risk management policies
- Investigate and remediate insider risk activities, alerts, and reports
- Manage insider risk cases
- Manage forensic evidence settings
- Manage notice templates
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs)
- Plan for IBs
- Create and manage IB segments and policies
- Configure Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive to enforce IBs, including setting barrier modes
- Investigate issues with IB policies
Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva
- Configure and maintain privacy risk management
- Create and manage Privacy Risk Management policies
- Identify and monitor potential risks involving personal data
- Evaluate and remediate alerts and issues
- Implement and manage subject rights requests